Catholic Dictionary

Term

EXPERIMENT

Definition

An act or practice undertaken to discover, test, or illustrate some truth, principle, fact, or hypothesis. Implicit in every valid experimentation in the moral and spiritual order is: 1. the recognition of certain nonexperimental principles of faith and morality; 2. adherence to the Church's directives on the conditions for experimentation; 3. definite and clear-cut norms of time and circumstances within which the experimenting is to be done; 4. willingness to recognize the success or failure of the experimentation and take measures to implement or desist from further experimentation accordingly. (Etym. Latin experimentum, trial, test, experiment; learning through experience.)